A soccer team consisting entirely of transgender men has debuted in a regional league in Spain, overcoming administrative challenges and prejudice to become the first all-trans squad to achieve federated status in Europe.

The team, named Fenix FC after the mythical bird symbolising rebirth, played some friendlies and seven-a-side games last season but now competes in the fifth tier in the northwestern region of Catalonia after being incorporated into a local club in the Barcelona suburb of Sant Feliu de Llobregat.

Spain passed a pioneering trans rights bill last year designed to make it easier to change a person’s legal gender identity. But intolerance persists, with a record 302 cases of discrimination or violence against LGBT people in Catalonia in 2023, a quarter of which targeted transgender victims, according to data compiled by the region’s Observatory against LGBTphobia.

Hugo Martinez, 24, told Reuters he faced abuse when he began transitioning with gender-affirming hormone therapy and was forced to leave the women’s soccer team in which he had played.

“I was a boy playing in the girls’ team, but without a changed ID, so I wasn’t yet allowed to play with boys,” he said, recounting how other players, coaches and parents in the stands often hurled insults and threats at him.

The experience prompted Martinez to put out a call online for other trans men seeking to play soccer in a safe environment. Setting up Fenix FC took three years.

‘SAFE SPACE’

Captain Luke Ibanez, 19, said he was hesitant about playing for a team with cisgender – or non-trans – men, as he feared he would not fit in or even suffer violence. So when Martinez told him about his idea for an all-trans side, he quickly jumped on board.

“Fenix is a team of trans boys created entirely by trans boys, but I think it’s more than that – a family, a safe space where you can be free and express yourself however you want and how you really feel.”

In response to Reuters’ emailed questions about their current policy, the Catalan FA said its men’s leagues have been mixed for the past two seasons, meaning players of any gender can participate regardless of their official identity.

Players may also choose to use a name that’s different from their legal one, it added. Other regional FAs have limited these modifications up to a certain age group, while the rules vary in other sports.

Fenix’s first game of the season on Sept. 21 ended with a 19-0 defeat. But for its fans and players, trans men having the right to play their favourite sport on equal terms is far more important than the score.

-Reuters

Kylian Mbappé’s X account was hacked on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, publishing widely circulated tweets on Palestine and Lionel Messi, which have since been deleted, AFP has revealed.

The hacker also advertised a fake cryptocurrency token as a legitimate investment opportunity endorsed by Mbappe, leading to a trader to lose over $1 million.

A trader lost over $1 million as a result of the fake cryptocurrency token, Coin Telegraph reported. Within an hour, the token’s value collapsed from over $1 million to just $9,200, resulting in significant financial losses for investors. 

The hacker used the account to praise Manchester United and endorse Cristiano Ronaldo as the greatest football player of all time, while dismissing Lionel Messi. 

“Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest football player of all time. The midget [Lionel Messi] is NOT my goat,” one of the controversial posts read.

The tweets also included comments about Mbappe’s supposed stance on not returning to Paris Saint-Germain and criticisms of other teams. The hacker also included posts like “Manchester is Red” and described Tottenham as “s***.”

He also made posts saying “Free Palestine” and “F*** Israel.”

One of the posts made was about the “$MBAPPE” cryptocurrency token, which the hacker falsely advertised as a legitimate investment opportunity endorsed by Mbappe. “I am giving back to my community. I support Crypto and I believe you should too! All Crypto sent to my address will be sent back to you doubled!” the post read.

At around 3am, the Real Madrid striker’s account, followed by 14.4 million internet users, published the message “FREE PALESTINE” followed by several Palestinian flags, AFP’s digital investigation unit noted.

Other tweets, immortalized by screenshots by many Internet users, concern Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, a goal celebration or even Manchester United. All in a mocking tone clearly out of step with the usual propositions of the former Paris SG player on social networks.

The Real Madrid star’s entourage, contacted by AFP, did not wish to comment on the incident.

On their 10^th  day at sea, the four Nigerian stowaways crossing the Atlantic in a tiny space above the rudder of a cargo ship ran out of food and drink.

They survived another four days, according to their account, by drinking the sea water crashing just meters below them, before being rescued by Brazilian federal police in the southeastern port of Vitoria.

Their remarkable, death-defying journey across some 5,600 kilometers (3,500 miles) of ocean underlines the risks some migrants are prepared to take for a shot at a better life.

“It was a terrible experience for me,” said 38-year-old Thankgod Opemipo Matthew Yeye, one of the four Nigerians, in an interview at a Sao Paulo church shelter. “On board it is not easy. I was shaking, so scared. But I’m here.”

Their relief at being rescued soon gave way to surprise.

The four men said they had hoped to reach Europe and were shocked to learn they had in fact landed on the other side of the Atlantic, in Brazil. Two of the men have since been returned to Nigeria upon their request, while Yeye and Roman Ebimene Friday, a 35-year-old from Bayelsa state, have applied for asylum in Brazil

“I pray the government of Brazil will have pity on me,” said Friday, who had already attempted to flee Nigeria by ship once before but was arrested by authorities there.

Both men said economic hardship, political instability and crime had left them with little option but to abandon their native Nigeria. Africa’s most populous country has longstanding issues of violence and poverty, and kidnappings are endemic.

Yeye, a pentecostal minister from Lagos state, said his peanut and palm oil farm was destroyed by floods this year, leaving him and his family homeless. He hopes they can now join him in Brazil.

Friday said his journey to Brazil began on June 27, when a fisherman friend rowed him up to the stern of the Liberian-flagged Ken Wave, docked in Lagos, and left him by the rudder. To his surprise, he found three men already there, waiting for the ship to depart. Friday said he was terrified. He had never met his new shipmates and feared they could toss him into the sea at any moment.

Once the ship was moving, Friday said the four men made every effort not to be discovered by the ship’s crew, who they also worried might offer them a watery grave.

“Maybe if they catch you they will throw you in the water,” he said. “So we taught ourselves never to make a noise.”

Spending two weeks within spitting distance of the Atlantic Ocean was perilous.

To prevent themselves from falling into the water, Friday said the men rigged up a net around the rudder and tied themselves to it with a rope. When he looked down, he said he could see “big fish like whales and sharks.” Due to the cramped conditions and the noise of the engine, sleep was rare and risky. “I was very happy when we got rescued,” he said.

Father Paolo Parise, a priest at the Sao Paulo shelter, said he had come across other cases of stowaways, but never one so dangerous. Their journey paid testament to lengths people will go in search of a new start, he said. “People do unimaginable and deeply dangerous things.”

-Reuters